Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Ethnic Groups

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many BAME staff are employed at (a) grade 7, (b) grade 5 and (c) grade 3 in his Department.

Christopher Pincher: ​The percentage of United Kingdom-based ethnic minority staff employed at D6 (grade 7 equivalent) in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is 9 per cent. The percentage of United Kingdom-based ethnic minority staff employed in the FCO's senior management structure (SMS) is 7 per cent. Diversity statistics are published in the FCO's Annual Report and Accounts 2018-2019. They are given as percentages and are not broken down into separate SMS grades (SMS 1 (grade 5 equivalent), SMS 2 (grade 3 equivalent), SMS 3 and SMS 4) in order to protect individual staff anonymity.The Civil Service-wide percentage for ethnic minority staff in SCS grades is 6.0 per cent (March 2019). The Civil Service-wide percentage for ethnic minority staff at grade 7 is 11.1 per cent.

Department for Work and Pensions

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to compensate women born in the 1950s who were adversely affected by changes to the state pension age.

Guy Opperman: Successive Governments have made necessary decisions to equalise and increase the State Pension age. State Pension age reform has focused on maintaining the right balance between sustainability of State Pension, equality and fairness between generations in the face of demographic change.Even after equalising women’s State Pension age with men’s, women will spend on average around 2 years more in receipt of their state pension because of their longer life expectancy. If we had not equalised State Pension age, women would be expected to spend on average over 40 per cent of their adult lives in retirement. During the passage of the 2011 Act, the Government listened to the concerns of those affected and this is why we introduced a concession worth over £1 billion in order to limit the impact on those women who would be most affected by the changes. This concession reduced the proposed increase in State Pension age for over 450,000 men and women, and means that no woman will see her pension age change by more than 18 months, relative to the 1995 Act timetable. For people who simply can’t work, our welfare system will continue to provide a strong safety net, as it does for people of all ages now. Any women experiencing hardship, including problems such as unemployment, disability, and coping with caring responsibilities, can already claim support from the welfare system. The Government is committed to supporting the vulnerable and spends over £50 billion a year on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions. The new State Pension is more generous for many women. Over three million women stand to gain an average of £550 extra per year by 2030 as a result of recent State Pension reforms.

Pensions

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to limit a person's pension age rise when age eligibility for the state pension is increased.

Guy Opperman: The Government published its review of State Pension age in July 2017. The report can be viewed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/630065/state-pension-age-review-final-report.pdf.The next Government review of State Pension age will be completed within six years of that report.The Pensions Act 2014 requires the Government to regularly review State Pension age and report to Parliament, to help to ensure the rules about State Pension age are appropriate having regard to life expectancy and the costs of increasing longevity are shared fairly between the generations, and provide greater clarity around the plans for changing State Pension age in the future. The changes to State Pension age became law following consultation and extensive debates in Parliament. During the passage of the Pensions Act 2011, Parliament introduced limits to person’s State Pension age rise, worth £1.1 billion, which reduced the proposed increase in State Pension age for over 450,000 men and women, meaning that no woman will see her pension age change by more than 18 months, relative to the original 1995 Act timetable.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food Supply

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the worse-case effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on (a) the proportion of food trucks not being able to have smooth border transit, (b) waiting times at borders, (c) the length of time of disruption to food supplies, (d) potential food price rises and (e) the finances of vulnerable people.

George Eustice: The government has been planning for a no deal scenario for the past three years and the cross government Border Delivery Group has been working on logistics issues and planning for a range of scenarios. The government has conducted exercises to test systems in preparation for leaving the EU without a deal and Operation Brock has been developed as a contingency plan, in the event that any problems arise at cross-Channel ports, to manage traffic flows.